NASA's launch team has loaded more than 700,000 gallons of fuel into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket, setting the stage for the Artemis II mission crew members to board.
The mission is NASA’s planned lunar fly-around by four astronauts that will be the first moon trip in 53 years.
The Space Launch System rocket is poised to blast off Wednesday evening with a two-hour launch window beginning at 6:24 p.m. ET at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Artemis astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be on board. They’ll hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon, hang a U-turn and then come straight back.
No circling around the moon, no stopping for a moonwalk — just a quick out-and-back lasting less than 10 days. NASA promises more boot prints in the gray lunar dust, but not before a couple practice missions.
Unlike the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moonfrom 1968 through 1972, Artemis’ debut crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian citizen.
Artemis II is the opening shot of NASA’s grand plans for a permanent moon base. The space program is aiming for a moon landing near the lunar south pole in 2028.
Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology. They are the children of Zeus and Leto. Artemis has long been associated with the moon.
While the Artemis name builds on the Apollo program and pays homage to it, “there is no way we could be that same mission or ever hope to even be,” said NASA astronaut Christina Koch, part of the Artemis II crew.
The Apollo program was all about beating the Russians to the moon and planting the U.S. flag. NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon between 1968 and 1972, including 12 moonwalkers. Now China is the competition.
NASA is striving for a long-term lunar presence under Artemis, with Mars to follow.
The Artemis II astronauts are now in their orange Orion spacesuits that they will wear for launch and reentry. Testing these new suits is one of the main goals of the mission.
The four are expected to emerge for their trip to the pad sometime before 2 p.m.
NASA created bright orange custom spacesuits for launch and reentry. Astronauts will also use them in case of a depressurization or some other emergency.
They can survive up to six days in the suits, inserting a straw into the helmet to sip water or protein shakes and relying on undergarment bags and bladders as a built-in toilet.
Future Artemis crews to the lunar surface will wear white moonwalking suits designed by Axiom Space.
During the Apollo era, astronauts wore the same white bulky spacesuits for launch and return as well as for moonwalks because there wasn’t enough storage on board for different outfits.
“We should have done Artemis 50 years ago,” said John Tribe, a propulsion engineer during the Apollo era.
Astronauts last flew to the moon during Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis II is the opening shot of NASA's grand plans for a permanent moon base. The space program is aiming for a moon landing near the lunar south pole in 2028.
"The next era of exploration begins," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X.
Best wishes already have started to pour in, including from England's King Charles III to Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Hansen will become the first non-U. S. citizen to launch to the moon. The crew also includes Christina Koch and Victor Glover, the first woman and first Black astronaut, respectively, destined for the moon.
"In this historic moment, you stand as a bridge between nations and generations," the king wrote in a letter to Hansen, "and I commend you for your courage, discipline and vision that have brought you to this threshold."
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